Ararat is a small city in south-west Victoria, Australia, about west of Melbourne, on the Western Highway on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hills and Cemetery Creek valley between Victoria's Western District and the Wimmera. Its urban population according to the 2011 census was 7,024.
It is the largest settlement in the Rural City of Ararat local government area and is the administrative centre.
The discovery of gold in 1857 during the Victorian gold rush transformed it into a boomtown which continued to prosper until the turn of the 20th century after which it has steadily declined in population. It was proclaimed as a city on 24 May 1950. Today, however it continues to decline.
It is named after Mount Ararat 10 kilometres south west of the town which was named by Horatio Wills in 1841.
History
Prior to the European settlement of Australia, Ararat was inhabited by the Tjapwurong Indigenous Australian people.
Europeans first settled in the Grampians region in the 1840s after surveyor Thomas Mitchell passed through the area in 1836. In 1841, Horatio Wills, on his way to selecting country further south, wrote in his diary, "like the Ark we rested" and named a nearby hill Mt Ararat. It is from this entry and the nearby Mount that the town takes its name. The Post Office opened 1 February 1856 although known as Cathcart until 31 August 1857.
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